Maybe it's a good time to pack up the ole Beetle and schlemiel-schlamazel on out to Milwaukee and see Laverne & Shirley's apartment building in person. Toss back some Schlitz, skip down the sidewalk, go bowling, take in a Brewer's game...

The inspiration for this, uh, unique vacation dream is a website called WhereItsAt.com. The site -- their motto is "Pop culture is all around you" -- features a map marking spots of major (and minor) pop culture significance: the "Twin Peaks" coffee shop in North Bend, Washington, the "Perfect Storm" bar in Gloucester, Massachusetts, the "Shawshank Redemption" prison in Mansfield, Ohio, and the "Exorcist" stairs in Washington, D.C., are but a few of the temptations featured.

America is in a funk over a really scary economy. The prime time diversion "American Idol" came back to our living rooms at just the right time. And, with another tarheel story line. A change in the rules, apparently because of declining ratings last season, allowed UNC-Chapel Hill student Anoop Desai to make the finals. We are all over this story.

One of Anoop's professors talked to our Eric Ferreri last week. And Anoop seems to have followed the advice of our pop culture mavens Adrienne Johnson Martin and Luciana Chavez when he performed Tuesday night.

Pop music critic David Menconi was  impressed. Did you vote? Will Anoop follow in the path of tarheels Clay and Fantasia?

Linda Williams